Nation must address the mentally ill
Simple answer; go back to institutionalizing the mentally infirm. Some are just as dangerous as a convicted killer. It’ll return safety to our neighborhoods and clean the streets of “homeless” blight. The negative realities of life in a modern society must be met head on and acted upon, no matter how harsh the solutions may be perceived by the immature and soft hearted. If one is to eliminate guns then they’d best eliminate anything which may be used as a deadly weapon. Common sense citizens.
Barry Jones
QUEEN CREEK
geekette posted at 9:43 am on Wed, Dec 19, 2012.
Who will pay for it? Are you willing to have your taxes raised so that the mentally ill can be properly cared for?
JMJ posted at 9:49 am on Wed, Dec 19, 2012.
Simple solutions to complex problems will never work. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is a right shared by the mentally ill, who are just as much citizens as any other, just as much as the second amendment gives all citizens [who are not felons] the right to bear arms.
Regarding the shootings in CT:
The plight of the latest psycho, unfortunately, went from bad to indescribable. I don't know why, having a rich set of parents, these parents were [or seem to have been] in denial about how far gone this "kid" was, and how much beyond help he appears to have been. They certainly had the means to have him treated. But, protracting the bubble which they created for him into his adult years was a huge mistake. Some kind of path should have been delineated wherein he could become as independent as was reasonably possible. Cloistering him in his mother's care as a "home-schooled" student should have been replaced with an earnest attempt to find him the right treatment in the right environment so he could perform at the best level possible, for him. If the news reports are accurate [which they may not be], his mother did him a huge disservice by keeping him out of the mainstream and handing him assault rifles to build his self-esteem. We don't give toddlers the lighter fluid and a match and tell them to go light the barbecue, after all. When she realized she couldn't handle him, anymore, she should have had those guns out of her house before breaking it gently to a now 20 year old body that commital was looming. I suspect it was broken as "Wow, this is going to be SO FUN! We're moving to Oregon and you're going to a brand new school!"
The result? Too much for him to process? Too big a reality check? Frazzle-di-di [Mom] was too frazzle-dee-doo to be able to stand it when the bells and whistles were going on this kid's whole life? Camp Mommy was closing down, finally? It's not funny. If you've ever tried to deal with the mentally ill, and you [or I] am not equipped to do so unless we are in that field, it's no picnic.
Certainly, this parent had a responsibility to not have this kid exposed to guns to "raise his self esteem". I have read it was a "point of pride" for him to be so "responsible" with her assault rifles. Yet, I also read that his mother took all the sharp tools in a Tupperware tub with her whenever she left him in the care of a babysitter. The aunt was quoted as saying her sister would have been the first to get this kid "help". Really? No. She didn't. Plain and simple.
Do you give someone such as this kid an artificial sense of responsibility in an artificially created [and maintained] world where the reality and gravity of the situation is the herd of elephants [not just one elephant] in the room? Sadly, the brother is quoted as saying he hadn't spoken with his brother, the shooter, for at least two years. Obviously, this family was in crisis, with two of its members flying the coop as soon as they could.
There are no easy answers, but committing all mentally ill people is not a reasonable solution, either. The severely mentally ill should not be roaming our streets if they are a danger to themselves or others. Having dealt with the mental illness "system" in Arizona, I put it in the same basket as education and CPS. Unless and until you have enough bodies, nothing moves forward.
Maybe now there are enough bodies. Little baby bodies. Mental illness, gun control, identifying toxic situations all need to be improved. But, rights are rights, be they gun rights or the right to live our lives as unobstructed as possible.
I have not solutions, personally. These issues are very complicated. I am praying that solutions do come from this latest tragedy.
RubidouxFalcon posted at 10:17 am on Wed, Dec 19, 2012.
I can't believe my joke about democrats being mentally ill got filtered, but the letter itself, which is a big joke, didn't.
Accuracy posted at 11:18 am on Wed, Dec 19, 2012.
Barry Jones write: “Nation must address the mentally ill” – “Simple answer; go back to institutionalizing the mentally infirm.”
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Meaning, the shooters in both, the Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook massacres, had histories of mental health problems.
“Nation must address mental health” . . . about the intersection of a lethal weapon and it relates to mental health.
Bluepoet posted at 12:20 pm on Wed, Dec 19, 2012.
Barry,
The immature and soft-hearted didn't pull the plug on institutional mental health. The insurance companies, and their conservative followers did...about 20 years ago, or so....when they decided that all mental health programs would have to fit inside a 30-day maximum treatment framework, thereby opening the gates to the asylums, and all but closing most, along with treatment centers for drug dependence, except for the rich...
It was a typical Ronnie Reagan-type mindset....like the ketchup is a vegatable, in our school lunch program idea...a "cost saving measure, for the insurance industry, that also encouraged the medical field to admit-release-re-admit, for each single separate symptom a patient presented, instead of trying to treat the whole patient.
..we are seeing the "savings" from that venture capital, now blossoming...
VofReason posted at 1:40 pm on Wed, Dec 19, 2012.
I agree with JMJ here, the problem was more localized at least in this case. If your child is mentally challenged- DONT HAVE A BUSHMASTER RIFLE IN YOUR HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Logic would dictate that this could lead to big problems. Like many things, the people closest to the problem have the greatest impact toward the solution. It is what some call personal resposibility and parental responsibility.
VofReason posted at 1:42 pm on Wed, Dec 19, 2012.
Yes more money to mental health. Maybe, but you are aware that your tax dollars went to Doctors trying figure out if the nut who shot up Tucson was crazy and then to make him less wobbly for trial. This is what gets to common sense people about sending more money to the Government to "fix" things.
truth posted at 3:52 pm on Wed, Dec 19, 2012.
First I would like to offer my condolence to every person effected by the shooting in Newtown, Conn. I am furious on how our news media has turned this tragedy into a circus for profit. Lets put this tragedy in to perspective which our news media has ignored for decades or even longer. CHILD ABUSE IN AMERICA; every year 3.3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States, the United States has the worst record in the industrialized nations loosing 5 children every day to abuse-related deaths. If our news media had one gram of decency they would not over look this terrible tragedy and only exploit gun related shooting death.
Slabside posted at 4:20 pm on Wed, Dec 19, 2012.
Truth, well said.
Pragmatic posted at 8:59 pm on Wed, Dec 19, 2012.
Institutionalize as incarcerate, or quarantine as in treat to cure or neutralize?